Saucer



Aug. 6, 1940. I R. G. COWAN 2,210,283

' SAUCER Filed Opt. 20, 1938 WWW W M INVENTOR A? 6Q) Can r1 ATTORNEY Patented Aug. 6, 1940 I PATENT OFFICE SAUCER R. Guy Cowan,

County, N. Y., assignor Syracuse, N. Y., a corporation of Company, New York Fayetteville Township, Onondaga to Onondaga Pottery Application October 20, 1938, Serial No. 235,969

2 Claims.

The present invention relates to saucers formed of ceramic material and adapted for use in association with a tea or coffee cup, and for handling, under the severe conditions to which such tableware is subjected in hotel, restaurant, steamship and railroad dining car service, and the general object of the present invention is to provide a saucer formed as hereinafter described, to insure relatively great strength, needed for such service, and in particular, to facilitate the proper stacking of saucers so as to minimize the risk of breakage of the stacked pieces.

In the above mentioned service in hotels, restaurants, etc., the manner in which tableware is handled and the large number of pieces frequently included in an individual stack, as well as the immediate conditions of use, contribute to a breakage rate not infrequently as great as 50% or 60% per year, and much in excess of the usual breakage rate of tableware in ordinary domestic use. In consequence, modifications in the form of saucers contributing toincreases in saucer strength which would be unnecessary and without practical importance for domestic use, may be of substantial practical importance in the case of tableware used in hotels, restaurants, etc.

The various features of novelty which characterize the present invention are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this specification. For a better understanding of this application, however, its advantages and specific objects attained with its use, reference should be had to the accompanying drawing and descriptive matter in which ,I have illustrated an embodiment of the invention.

of the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a saucer partly broken away;

Fig. 2 is a vertical section through a plurality of saucers, assembled one above another in a stack; and

Fig. 3 is a vertical section of a portion of a stack of alternating cups and saucers.

The saucer A shown in the drawing, comprises a central, substantially fiat, horizontal bottom section B, separated from the dished outer section of the saucer, at the upper and lower sides of the latter by annular ribs or sholders C and D, respectively. The top surface of the central section B is below the level of the top surface E of the immediately adjacent portion of the outer section of the saucer, so that without the rib C, the top surface of the central saucer section B would form the bottom of a cup receiving well of customary form. The rib C increases the depth of the well, and, preferably and as shown, my improved saucer is so shaped that the well is approximately twice as deep as is customary and as it would be if the rib C were omitted.

The rib D at the underside of the saucer and constituting its supporting foot, is larger in diameter than the top rib C, and is so proportioned relatively to the latter, that when a plurality of saucers A are assembled in a stack, as illustrated in Fig. 2, the foot rib- D of each upper saucer in the stack, seats directly and firmly against the top surface portion E of the subjacent saucer immediately surrounding the top rib C of the latter. In consequence, there is no wedging or camming action between the adjacent ribs C and D of the adjacent saucers, while at the same time, said adjacent ribs 0 and D are close enough together to prevent significant relative horizontal movement of the two saucers. To minimize any tendency to lateral displacement of the stack, as a result of such irregularities in form as may be expected to occur in ceramic tableware, the surface E- on each saucer directly engaged by the foot D of a superposed saucer, is advantageously made generally horizontal, or is but slightly inclined tothe horizontal.

Saucers constructed in accordance with the present invention are adapted for effective interlocking with suitably proportioned cups, when the saucers and cups are assembled alternately in a stack as shown in Fig. 3. To that end, each of the cups F alternating in the stack with the saucers A, should not only have a bottom rib or foot G adapted to engage and cooperate with the central section B and rib C of a subjacent saucer, as does the foot rib D of each upper saucer shown in Fig. 2, but should have its upper edge or rim H adapted to directly engage the portion of the under surface of a saucer A supported by the cup, at the outer side of, but sufficiently close to the foot D of the last mentioned saucer, to prevent horizontal movement of the last mentioned saucer and cup.

As is clearly shown in Fig. 2, the ribs 0 and D of each saucer are rounded in cross section, and are horizontally overlapping, notwithstanding the horizontal displacement of the crowns of the two ribs, required to prevent the adjacent ribs C and D of adjacent saucers in a stack, from bearing against one another in a vertical direction. The horizontal overlapping of the ribs 0 and D of each saucer thickens and gives relatively great strength to the particular portion of the saucer most subject to injurious impact in the stacking operation, and as a result of careless placing of the saucer on a table or other support. As will be apparent from Fig. 2, in the assembled stack of saucers, the weight or load carried by each lower saucer in the stack is impressed in a substantially vertical direction on a portion of the saucer directly above the bottom rib D of the saucer,'so that the maximum strengthening capacity of the latter is utilized.

The relatively great depth of the cup receiving well of the saucer A gives a desirable stability in the relation of the saucer to a cup supported by the saucer, both in the normal use of a saucer and associated cup, and in the saucer and cup stacking arrangement shown in Fig. 3. The tendency to the accumulation of liquid in the relatively deep cup receiving well of my saucer, and for a teaspoon placed on the saucer to slide intothe well and thereby interfere with the subsequent seating therein of a cup, is minimized by the barrier effect of the rib C.

When saucers are stacked up as shown in Fig. 2, the direct vertical supporting relation between each two adjacent saucers in the stack is desirable and tends to reduce breakage. The relative form and dimensions of the saucer ribs C and D not only insure the direct vertical load transmission from each upper saucer in the stack to the immediately subjacent saucer when the two saucers are in proper axial register, but tends to automatically insure such register. Saucers are stacked as shown in Fig. 2, in the course of their manufacture, transportation and storage in warehouses and stores and on the shelves of users, as well as in the handling incident to their normal use.

The need for the desirable stacking characteristics of the saucers, illustrated in Fig. 2, is especially important in hotel, restaurant, steamship and dining car service because of the relatively large size of the stacks formed in said service. The relatively great rapidity with which dishes are handled and the relatively great risk of fracture producing impacts in such service, give especial practical importance to all of the above mentioned advantages of the. above mentioned invention.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. A saucer comprising a substantially flat central section, a dished outer section having the inner portion of its upper surface above the top surface of said central section, an annular rib extending upwardly from said outer section and having its upper edge at a level substantially below the level of the upper edge of said outer section at the inner edge of the latter and forming the upper portion of the lateral wall of a cup receiving well having its bottom wall formed by larger diameter than the first mentioned rib at the underside of said saucer and extending downwardly below the level of the underside of said central section and adapted to seat on the dished outer section and surround the upwardly extending annular rib of a saucer similar to and directly beneath the first mentioned saucer.

2. A saucer as specified in claim 1 in which the upwardly extending rib and the said foot comprise portions which horizontally overlap one another and thereby thicken and strengthen the portion of the saucer including said overlapping portions.

R. GUY CO-WAN. 

